We have to confess that we are unable to dis-
cover any possible tendency in the proposed amend-
ment to promote any of these indispensible requi-
sites of good Government.
The distribution of powers between the Federal
and State Governments, when acting in harmonious
co-operation, having proved adequate to every emer-
gency ,in peace and in war, during the entire exist-
ence of the Constitution down to our late unhappy
troubles' and having elevated our country to the
highest point of national prosperity and great-
ness, the wisdom, patriotism and sagacity of the
framers of the Constitution were exhibited by the
result of their labors.
In the proposition now under consideration the
people of the several States, acting through their
several Legislatures, are called upon to strip them-
selves and their State Governments of powers
most vital to their safety and freedom, yea even to
their continued existence in any useful or practical
operation, and to bestow those powers upon the
Federal Government. Before yielding to such a
demand the proposition ought to receive the most
careful consideration in all its aspects and conse-
quences.
To understand the nature and object of the pro-
posed amendment, it is necessary to know its his-
tory, and the grounds upon which its ratification
is urged.
The people of the eleven Southern States who
attempted to secede from the jurisdiction of the
Constitution and laws of the United States, and to
establish a separate Confederacy, having utterly
failed in their attempt, after four years of civil
war, were compelled to lay down their arms and
return to their obedience to the Constitution and
the laws of the United States.
The obligation of the Federal Government to re-
store fugitive slaves, had in the progress of political
and fanatical stite, become one of exceedingly diffi-
cult fulfillment, State legislation had virtually nul-
lified the fugitive slave law in a majority of the free
States, and the state of popular feeling against it
in the others, rendered it next to impossible to
execute it. In the progress of the civil war, in

Report of the
Committee.